Alice Cooper: The Nightmare (1975) Starring Alice Cooper, Vincent Price, Linda Googh, Robyn Blythe, Sheryl Cooper, Gene Montoya, Uchi Sugiyama.

Directed by Jørn Winther.

Running Time: 66 minutes.

Rating: PG

"I'm not lost. I'm sleeping"

A sleeping musician Steven (Cooper) endures various torments at the hands of the evil Master of the Nightmare (Price) who has invaded his subconscious via his bad dreams. They strike a deal in which Steven won't try to escape his nightmare in exchange for his experiencing the kind of dark experience he wants. Along the way he, of course, can't help but perform some of the best Alice Cooper music i.e. tracks from the album 'Welcome To My Nightmare'.

We see our hero battle giant spiders, get drowned in a witches cauldron, dance with skeletons and an ice queen (Cold Ethyl), bust out of a strait jacket, get chased by a robot cyclops, crawl out of a giant fan magazine and finally be confronted by it all once in a surreal examination of the themes of the album.

As it is Halloween I thought it fitting to finally submit my review of Alice Cooper: The Nightmare (Not to be confused with Welcome To My Nightmare, a concert film Cooper made the same year) for publication. It is a rocking Halloween favorite and there is no better audiovisual document of the macabre genius that was the stageshow of Alice Cooper. Indeed, of the movies bands were making in the 1970s, including disasters like Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978) among others, this one stands out.

This film is not in the league of other rock musicals like for instance Pink Floyd: The Wall. The production value of this prime time TV special (An installment of "ABC's Wide World of Entertainment.") is in fact pretty low grade. The objective was to stage something that could not only be recreated on tour but leave behind a document of the tour. It was a made for TV production too so the budget was lower than it might have been and the content was sanitized to meet network censor scrutiny.

Why this particular musical/horror/fantasy extravaganza went over so well with audiences was ultimately because of it lived up to the litmus test of any good rock video i.e. was a truthful visual companion to the music that went with it. The creepy vibe of the strong visuals fits with the music.

Remember that music video was still being pioneered at this time. If you look at the rock videos of the 1980s the influence of this production (And Alice Cooper's stage show in general) was clearly seen. When MTV finally debuted in 1981 it had to borrow heavily from the library of variety show guest appearances by rock artists to have enough unique content to fill even a week's worth of broadcasts. Films like this, which could be cut up into multiple videos also provided much needed filler and gave an example of what worked in the medium as well as what didn't work.

The art of rock video was developed by trial and error and some of that is seen here. For example an underappreciated Cooper track like 'The Department Of Youth' actually sounds better with the visuals provided here. Sight and sound can compliment each other as we see in the very best videos.

Notes:

Cooper appeared as the Sun King in the disastrous rock musical Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978).

Vincent Price contributed his voice to Michael's Jackson's Thriller.

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